Same division, different league, off the field at least. Across the white line,
however, commitment and resolve can often amount to a stronger force than talent
fitfully applied, and for 90 minutes the paupers of the First Division stuffed
it up the princes good and proper.
Certainly any lingering fondness the Fulham players might have harboured for
the Nationwide League will have been well and truly banished by their final
bruising experience.
The Mariners deserved this. Collectively worth half what Fulham paid for a
Latvian midfielder called Andrejs Stolcers - who was utterly ineffective yesterday
- they fought like tigers to preserve the status that is crucial to the club's
future.
No club in the division attracts fewer supporters than Grimsby, and to have
been deprived of next year's massively increased TV money - £2.5m is the
latest estimate -would have sent the club into a spiral from which it might
not have been able to extract itself.
Anticipating a celebration, not to mention some decent fish 'n' chips, Fulham
fans travelled to Cleethorpes in number and in plenty of time. Unfortunately
it appeared the players had travelled in a similar frame of mind.
Needing a point to be safe, Grimsby set their stall out early. With Steve Livingstone
as a solitary target up front, they packed midfield and defence, tackled like
madmen, closed down anything that moved into their half of the pitch and defended
with their lives.
Fulham, one sensed, would really rather have been elsewhere, but in Louis Saha
and Luis Boa Morte they have in abundance the one thing that can frighten any
team, however determined; pace.
Twice in the opening quarter they got beyond the Grimsby defence; in the 10th
minute Boa Morte shot wide, and in the 19th, put clear by Saha, the Portugese
striker had his shot blocked by Grimsby goalkeeper Danny Coyne.
Otherwise, for all they stroked the ball around Fulham barely threatened. Nor,
it must be said, did Grimsby - except once. Shortly before the half hour, Livingstone
laid the ball off for his captain Paul Groves to try his luck from 22 yards.
Groves hit it low and cleanly enough, but it was no bullet. Even so, it somehow
squeezed under Marcus Hahnemann, Fulham's reserve goalkeeper.
And that, effectively, was that. Fulham went through the motions, Grimsby refused
to give them a glimpse of daylight near their penalty area, and their supporters
were celebrating survival with half an hour still to play.
Source The Guardian by Richard Rae